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The trend of game collaboration is blowing towards meat brands. In 2024, brands such as Juewei Foods and Bright Meat announced collaborations with game IPs (intellectual property). At the end of July, Hormel's collaboration with the mobile game "Undetermined Event Book" also attracted the attention of netizens.

The reason why meat brands co-branded game IPs is that the overlap of consumption scenarios can bring potential customers, and it is also an urgent need to expand brand awareness under fierce market competition. However, although choosing a co-branding can help break the stalemate of competition, it is also necessary to see the potential risks in the co-branding process, respect the preferences of users in different circles, and avoid falling into the trap of constantly changing packaging to follow the co-branded models. From a long-term development perspective, if meat brands want to truly break the circle, in addition to marketing, they must also practice internal skills and create explosive products through research and development innovation.

Several meat brands launch game collaborations

In January 2024, Juewei Duck Neck cooperated deeply with the mobile game "Yuanmeng Star" and launched the "Yuanmeng Cup", a joint set of braised meat dishes, in the fancy packaging style of the milk tea industry, which kicked off the cooperation between meat brands and game IPs this year. In July, during the "2024 CrossFire: Gunfight King Professional League Summer Season", Bright Meat launched the new "CrossFire" co-branded Merlin luncheon meat. Subsequently, Hormel announced a joint beef jerky with the mobile game "Undetermined Event Book". The Weibo topic #Hormel Undetermined Event Book# received more than 85 million views in less than a week.

The co-branding of gaming IPs in fast food, new tea drinks and other fields is common, but it is a rare guest in meat brands. In 2024, why did meat brands fall in love with game co-branding after realizing it?

One of the reasons may be the urgent need to compete for a brand position in the hearts of consumers. According to the 2024 China Ready-to-eat Meat Meal Replacement Consumer Market Insight Report by iMedia Consulting, China's ready-to-eat meat market is still in a stage where there are many and scattered brands. 47.4% of consumers believe that brand trust will affect their consumption decisions on ready-to-eat meat. In its annual report released in April this year, Bright Meat also mentioned that consumers pay more attention to brand awareness, and competition in the branded meat market is becoming increasingly fierce.

Marketing expert Lu Shengzhen analyzed to the Beijing News reporter that meat brands are relatively stable and conservative in tone, with lower fashion elements and popularity than other fast-moving consumer goods. Currently, there is a lack of new competitive points in marketing methods, and the competition is stalemate. For meat brands, co-branding can change their conservative characteristics and bring them closer to young consumers. Especially in the context of packaging and product innovation, which are difficult to make major breakthroughs, co-branding can help brands find cultural motivation for horizontal expansion, break the stalemate, and break the self-enclosed circle of meat products through consumers' empathy for popular memes, thus entering a new stage of brand competition.

Among the many IP co-brandings, the commercial value of game co-branding cannot be underestimated. The "Taobao Tianya 2023 Annual IP Value List" shows that among the top 50 IPs ranked by the transaction data of Taobao and Tmall's entire platform IP products in 2023, animation is the most popular, followed by games. Among the game IPs shortlisted in the list, "Undetermined Event Book" which cooperated with meat brands this year is also among them.

In the opinion of Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, the reason why meat brands and games are co-branded is that the consumption scenarios overlap. "It is a common scene in life to eat meat snacks while playing games. When there is overlap in user groups, the co-branding of the two can promote the mutual attention and consumption between different user groups, play a role in promoting two-way new traffic and jointly enhance brand awareness."

Beware of falling into the "dress-up" trap

Nowadays, the collaboration between meat brands and game IPs is no longer limited to “old wine in new bottles” on packaging.

After Juewei Foods announced its cooperation with Yuanmeng Star, in addition to launching the "Yuanmeng Cup" meal offline and opening a Juewei Yuanmeng theme store, it also launched Juewei's limited game skins online and set up a "Juewei Duck Neck Fortune Bucket" scene where you can check in during the game. Hormel strengthened the fan effect of different game characters in the joint venture, including buying the joint "Light Enjoy Beef Jerky" to get three joint peripherals of the corresponding game character, including Polaroid small cards, transparent cards, and acrylic bricks.

Additional gifts other than these foods also have a certain effect in attracting new customers. Among them, Hormel's "Light Beef Jerky" series has been launched since 2019. Many consumers told the Beijing News reporter that they had never heard of related products before the joint event. Consumer Ms. Zhang told the Beijing News reporter that she bought it mainly because she likes this game, and the gift is a popular peripheral style in the fan circle. "If it weren't for the peripherals, this beef jerky (35g/bag) costs 89 yuan for 5 bags, and I might not spend so much money to try a product I don't know about."

In Lu Shengzhen's view, the consumption characteristics of contemporary young consumers are value identification, cultural resonance, satisfaction of social attributes and cost-effective product experience. On the one hand, this kind of value-added service is that companies want to please consumers without blind spots, but on the other hand, it may also cause abuse and over-complication of IP marketing. Food co-branded games can easily be led to a "dress-up" with no end. If they lag behind the development of the game plot, they may also be regarded as outdated by players, and they will not get the expected return without paying the cost. "Although co-branding is very popular, it should be carried out in accordance with the principles of appropriate cost, cultural consistency and product first. Excessive entertainment will bring troubles to consumers in commodity consumption. Meat brands must not forget that the advantages and disadvantages of the products themselves are the foundation of their survival in the process of co-branding." Lu Shengzhen said.

Cross-border collaborations must respect user preferences

Is the collaboration between food and games a good business that is sure to make money, as it can both attract traffic and generate profits?

In 2022, a new tea brand and the game "Love of Light and Night" failed to form a joint venture because some employees were found to have slandered the game and gamers, leaked materials, and privately sold cooperative gifts. In the view of Ms. Zhang, who is keen on playing games, "the joint venture must show respect and sincerity, and fans will only buy it."

Zhuang Shuai believes that the feelings of both users should be respected during the joint venture. Food brands cannot only see the benefits of joint ventures, but also the possible risks such as game disputes. At the same time, in addition to branded marketing, the ultimate competition of meat products is still in the quality-price ratio and cost-effectiveness. At present, the meat snacks on the market are still weak in terms of new products. How to do a good job in R&D innovation and continuously improve product quality and food safety are the key points that meat brands cannot ignore in addition to marketing.

Lu Shengzhen also pointed out that compared with other fast-moving consumer goods, the biggest pain point of domestic meat brands is that they are not as flexible in product expansion as other fast-moving consumer goods, and their marketing methods are mostly concentrated on terminal competition, but lack competition at the product innovation level, and lack the ability to create explosive products and Internet celebrity products that are often seen in other fast-moving consumer goods industries. As the social economy enters a high-quality development stage, the demand for meat products will also enter a new stage of demand for safer and healthier quality. The future competition should be based on culture as a coat and product innovation as the core. It should not focus on marketing routines, but start from the product itself.

Beijing News reporter Wang Siyang

Editor: Qin Shengnan

Proofread by Yang Li